Add NASA in Huntsville to the list of those coping with frozen pipes

View full sizeHuge high-bay test facilities like this one at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville were a challenge to keep warm in the extreme cold of Monday night and Tuesday. In this file photograph, two test team members outside a fuel tank being tested give an idea of the size of some of NASA's buildings in Huntsville, which date back to testing for the Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle. (Lee Roop/lroop@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - NASA's used to dealing with the extreme cold of outer space, but the space agency grapples with cold weather on Earth just like everyone else. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville spent part of Tuesday thawing frozen water sprinkler lines and dealing with pipe damage from the extreme cold over Monday night.

At Marshall, water sprinkler lines froze in four buildings and caused limited damage in two of them, NASA said. NASA didn't immediately identify which buildings, but said the damage was quickly controlled. Crews also thawed pipes in the other two buildings.

"Given that we have roughly 250 buildings on site, the impacts have been relatively limited for these temperature extremes," Bob Devlin, deputy director of center operations, said in an email. "We believe this is because of the vigilance and hard work of the maintenance, operations and control teams and the proactive response of building occupants in helping to identify problems."

Those crews used portable heaters Monday night to help keep temperatures in NASA's high-bay test facilities as warm as possible, Devlin said.